Coffee: A Love Story

It all began in the summer of 1986. I was home after my first year at Georgetown, working as a waitress at Cracker Barrel, a thankless job if ever there was one. Each evening, around 9:30, my exhausted fellow waitresses would retreat to a smoky cubicle equipped with a table and two chairs for their “coffee break.” I didn’t care for coffee, so I abstained. I’d tried it, of course. A couple of times when I was a pre-teen my mother and I stayed up all night for a treat, and she made me a weak mixture that was mostly sugar and milk. My little sister had always loved coffee, was always trying to steal sips of Mima’s instant. At Granny’s house, people drank pots and pots, always black. It was a mystery to me, this stuff the grownups seemed to love so much that tasted so bad.
But that summer, I was serving it constantly, despite the heat, and I felt I was excluded from some big secret that I just couldn’t comprehend. When I wasn’t running from table to kitchen and back, I stood by the coffee station keeping an eye on my customers, and when I would get in the car at the end of the day my mother would breathe in the coffee aroma that clung to my hair and my uniform and exclaim about how wonderful I smelled. Finally, wanting to try again to understand what it was that I was missing, and wanting to join in on some level with the camaraderie amongst the mostly much-older and somewhat streetwise staff, I poured myself a cup with a lot of cream and sugar, and I was lost.
Throughout the rest of my college career, I was a morning and sometimes (if a paper was due) evening visitor to Wisemiller’s, the local convenience store/deli within a short walk of most of the places I lived. I consumed countless medium styrofoam cups of coffee with double cream double sugar–the Wisemillers’ girls stopped asking me how I wanted it before long.
After college, coffee was a required morning stop at the 7-11 on my way to work, even if it made me late! Back in Knoxville and expecting baby #1, there were of course no 7-11s–but it didn’t matter as at that point I gave up caffeine for the duration of my pregnancy, a feat I have never even attempted again. But post-baby I looked forward to my afternoon coffee break, reading Time magazine or watching Bob Ross and relaxing while she napped. Later, with three kids under five, Weigel’s cappuccino became an evening treat for my husband and me.
I was in graduate school when the coffee shops started popping up. I grew to love The Golden Roast on campus, and went there for my regular Monday Mommy’s Night Out for years, learning to love the more exotic varieties like Ethiopian Yirgacheffe and Blue Nile. I also enjoy the Mexican roast at Java on the rare occasions I go there.
I have been informed that the coffee at Starbucks is an acquired taste, and I can’t seem to acquire it. Nor do I have any interest in learning to love frou frou coffee drinks like lattes and frappuccinos and whatever else. When I have no alternative to Starbucks, I cannot even bring myself to ask for a Venti or a Grande. I just say, “Whatever you call medium around here.”
These days my go-to coffee hangout is the Panera Bread in Fountain City, and honestly I don’t like their coffee. Except the hazelnut. I know exactly how much cream and sugar I need per cup, and I was annoyed when they got new cups and I had to figure the whole thing out again. So you see, I am not a coffee snob. I enjoy the coffee at Shoney’s more than just about anywhere else, and for home drinking a prefer JFG Bonus Blend, or perhaps JFG Special Coffee. Because for me, it really is “The best part of the meal.” Update: Coffee is still the best part of any meal (best part of the DAY, if you ask me!), but these days I take it with plenty of cream but no sugar at all.

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I feel pretty good when I read this list.~ A Grandparent’s Wisdom on Parenting ~

1. Let your child be a child. Children are not little adults.

2. Don’t have too many rules, especially when they’re little. They’re not going to remember them all anyway.

3. Pick your battles. It won’t work to make an issue out of everything your child does that you don’t like.

4. The greatest gift you can give your child besides your love is your time. Whenever possible, interrupt what you are doing to take time for them. Many things you need to do can be put off until later but many things your child does only happen once, and you don’t want to miss them.

5. Don’t micromanage your child’s behavior. It isn’t necessary (or productive in the long run) to try to control everything he or she says or does.

7. Kids get tired. When they do, it’s usually futile to try to reason with them to get them to do what you want.

8. Don’t say things to your own child that you would never dream of saying to someone else’s child.

9. Whatever stage your child is in, remember: this, too, shall pass, and they will move on to another stage. (This may be better or worse than the previous one!)

10. Don’t let mealtime become a battle zone. No child has ever starved to death yet because they didn’t eat everything on their plate.

11. Read to your child.

12. When your child starts talking, listen. What they say is important to them, and kids have great things to say.

13. Spend some time tucking your child into bed each night.

14. It’s good to find a church family to help you raise your child. You need others to support you. Your child needs to establish a good foundation of values and truth. If he or she doesn’t get this early in life, they might get it later and from someone else you may not like.

15. Take time every day to enjoy your child and relish this role God has blessed you with.

(Postscript: my dad says some of these are things he did, and some are things he wishes he’d done. ❤️) …

Timeline Photos"Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you." – Luke 14 #SundayGospel bit.ly/2ZpzEtS…

"Arsonists have set God’s Cathedral aflame. In the Amazon rainforest, home to hundreds of thousands of animal species, 40,000 plant species, and nearly a million indigenous people, fires are raging, destroying the ecological buttresses of one of the most biodiverse and important ecosystems in the world. These creatures are a testament to God’s good creation, a living, breathing cathedral, shaped by the evolutionary forces of God, and entrusted to human hands." …

"Baby loss is not just a story of grief, of pain and of tears, its a beautiful story of love and of celebration.

So let’s scream from the rooftops that all children matter, those that are here and those that we desperately miss."I haven’t shared this picture for quite some time so wanted to post it again this evening. These are my children…the ones that ran ahead and the ones who I get the honour to raise.

Someone said to me in an interview recently well you are the mother of two, I kindly corrected them. I am the mother of 7, just because five of my children didn’t get to grow up on the earth, doesn’t stop them from existing.

I also wanted to say this…Baby loss is not just a story of grief, of pain and of tears, its a beautiful story of love and of celebration.

So let’s scream from the rooftops that all children matter, those that are here and those that we desperately miss. ❤️

I am so unbelievably touched that SO many people have liked and shared this image, THANK You. Please feel free to also like my page and see future posts and quotes, I would love for you to become a FB friend x